And I Love Her
by Gitana
Summary: Sequel to Remember Our Love Buffy’s pregnant with Angel’s other miracle child.
1. A love like ours

Sequel to _**Remember Our Love  
**_Summary: Buffy's pregnant with Angel's child.  
**Disclaimer:** Nothing is mine! That would be Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: For 'I will remember you' ATS S1, 'Destiny' ATS S5  
Story Notes: Early S5 ATS  
**Song Disclaimer:** The title of this fic and the chapter titles are from The Beatles song: "And I love her"

**Ch. 1 - "A love like ours..."**

"Your offer is not good enough!" Angel hissed.

"Insolent vampire! You live to fight, not complain!"

"I am fighting while you toy with my life!"

"You're dead... What life are you talking about?"

Angel raged inside knowing no answer could ever be satisfying, but he kept arguing because he needed a resolution. Toning down his attitude, he remembered what he was there for.

"Look, I'm not here to plead for myself. Just listen, just listen. Don't take her away."

"You know the answer to such request."

"Take _me_!"

"Impossible."

"I checked – there's no 'impossible' in the dictionary of the gods…"

"We warned you of the consequences. Don't fault us for your ignorance."

"Your warning was useless; she was already there when you left. I had no time to think of anything."

"Our offer to you still stands, take it or leave it. Go now. You're ire is unbearable."

"I'm not going anywhere until you fix this."

"As fire consumes, anger blinds... Wipe the blood off your mouth, vampire, or you are going to drown."

Once again The Powers That Be once expelled Angel from their haven. He tried entering but an energy barrier blocked his path.

"Damn it!" he cursed. Now he had to go back to his apartment and break the news to Buffy. He would have done anything to get them out of that mess. It felt like _déjà vu_ without the happy ending. Angel took out his cell phone to call Lorne.

"Lorne it's me. Did Gunn find anything?"

"Nothing new; saving her requires the Slayer's life."

"Yeah, the Powers that Be said the same thing. There _has_ to be something else."

"There isn't. Gunn and Wesley searched every book, spell and prophecy mentioning the PTB and well, seems like what you see is what you get."

"I'm on my way."

Angel drove to W&H where Buffy expected good news. Once inside the offices he looked for Fred, he had some questions about vampire DNA.

"Ghost, huh?" Buffy asked Spike while running her hands through his body as if he were an illusion of her mind.

"Pregnant, huh?" Spike smirked. He was destroyed, but it was no time to let her know.

"No, I just got hit by a big rock."

"Right," Spike chuckled, "lucky rock."

Angel entered the room drawing two clearly desperate pair of eyes. Neither Spike nor Buffy dared to speak first.

"I'm sorry," Angel broke the ice, "nothing can be done. The Powers see no obligation to change the situation, nor were they moved to."

Buffy sank inside the sofa she was seating. "It's my fault; I should've never come here after Willow told me. She tried stopping me."

"A powerful secret can never be told without requiring confirmation. Human nature, Buffy, you did nothing wrong."

Angel couldn't help looking at her swollen belly and getting chills up and down his spine. Surreal as it was, he had to keep his feet on solid ground. Still, that was his child inside Buffy, and she was going to die.

Spike didn't have a body but his pain felt real enough.

"Spike, how long has it been since the last contraction?" Buffy asked puzzled, she felt her body blooming.

"Two hours and three minutes."

"What did the doctor say while I was away?" Angel asked

"Nothing you haven't heard," Buffy tried setting herself more comfortably. "Just that it would take a while."

"Good. We need all the time in the world, but I'll take one more day."

"There's nothing to be done, though. This isn't going to happen," Buffy protested.

"It will if I can get my hands on some juicy prophecy..." Angel thought about letting his plan known but quickly stepped back.

"Boss, not to rain on your parade but," Spike walked through the chair in front of him to stand next to Angel, "I think we should start thinking loopholes instead of straight bait."

"Done that. Buffy's not going to like it." Angel tried speaking low so Buffy wouldn't hear.

"I'm pregnant, not deaf."

Spike and Angel looked at each other. "She's good." While both vampires smiled a sunny Harmony entered the office with a box between her hands.

"We don't knock?" Angel asked Harmony in full sarcastic tone.

"We?" Harmony looked puzzled. "Hm, anyway, this arrived in the mail for Spike."

"Huh?"

"It's addressed to you, care of here."

"Well, what is it?"


	2. could never die

**Ch.2 "...could never die"**

Harmony walked to Angel's desk followed by a curious Spike. She put the box on the desk, picked up a letter opener and opened the box: A mild sound came out striking Spike hard enough to move him back.

"What…" Harmony whimpered while looking inside the box. "It's empty."

"Bugger! I'm dizzy. Are you sure there's nothing in there?"

"You okay?" Buffy asked.

"Well, I'm out. Need anything, Boss?"

"Touch him," Angel ordered Harmony.

Harmony didn't understand but did as she was told. To her surprise, Spike was cold and solid. Spike's face was glowing with wonder. "Do that again." Buffy and Angel looked astounded.

"Bloody anatomy, Angel!" Spike celebrated. "I can feel; I'm back!"

An unsuspecting Fred walked in to find everyone – including Wesley, Gunn and Lorne – discussing what could've been that made Spike solid.

"Oh my word!" Fred couldn't believe no one had told her. "How did you do it?"

Spike smiled and walked over to her. "We don't know who or how." He hugged her as her arms remained extended, her hands flooded with papers containing results of difficult research. Thank you was all Spike could say. Fred accepted shyly. Suddenly she remembered the important news she had to share. She handed the mess of papers to Angel. "It's possible," she said. Angel's face immediately lit up, he turned to Buffy.

"Fred has given me new hope. We managed to find a loophole, an obvious yet dangerous one. In order to save my daughter Buffy has to die, it's the price to pay. As soon as I became human I realized I was leaving Buffy and all of you unprotected. The Powers That Be made me a vampire again with the only condition that Buffy would never know what happened between us. The moment she found out the deal was void; as a result our reality was altered and now Buffy is now pregnant, as she would have been had the Powers That Be not erased those events."

Everyone listened carefully to what Angel was explaining.

"But the child will die as soon as she's born because she's not supposed to exist in this fixed reality. Only Buffy's death will balance her life." Angel kept quiet about the offer the Powers put on table for him: Connor's life for his new daughter. No one except Spike and Buffy remembered Connor existed. "Loophole is that Buffy is turned into a vampire. She will be dead, yet alive."

Buffy's face wrinkled with the news.

"It's the only way or the baby dies."

"I'll do it. I'll do it," Buffy repeated, to everybody's surprise.

"Buffy, your soul... You'll have no soul," Spike explained.

"I'll get one, like you did."

"It's too hard, you can die trying."

"That'd be what, the third time?"

Angel knew Buffy would do it but he feared what could come out of it. Glimpses of Darla's suicide flashed in his head.

"With the baby connected to Buffy, what would happen to the baby?" Wesley asked.

"Nothing," Fred answered. "If Buffy is bitten during the actual birth the baby's DNA would remain intact. All connections would dry out, but the timing of the bite has to be impeccable, or the baby dies."

Buffy's face changed once more, she turned maroon with the pressure reaching her upper body in a fierce grip.

"I'll go get the doctor," Gunn said while undoing the tie he later threw on the floor where he'd spent the night with Fred looking over Buffy's delicate state. Angel was looking for another way of saving both Buffy's and her daughter's life.

Fred ran to Buffy's side for support.

"Angel, carry her to your bed," Fred ordered

Sensing the commotion Spike found his way to Angel's room. A strange panic took over Angel. "I can't do it," he said. "I can't kill her."

"Ahhhhhhhhh." Buffy was pushing, her face flushed. "You have to, you have to do it right now. Angel?"

"Spike, _you_ do it. Bite her for me."


	3. If you saw my love, you’d love her too

Angel took the baby between his hands; a pride he'd felt once before came over him, but that was it. He felt angry and guilty about Buffy; it was too big a price to pay. Those gypsies, he sometimes thought, were smarter than he thought before. Not only would the memories torture him, but his soul was bound to stay inside. Had the gypsies cursed him with perfect happiness, he wouldn't have been able to keep his soul. In this world being tormented and depressed is easier than finding true happiness when even the purest of moments, like the one he was experiencing at the moment, were tainted with past sins. He looked at his baby girl and Connor's face appeared in his mind, reminding him of his failed fatherhood, of how he had lost him forever more than once. All the emotions that his daughter brought him were incomplete, just like him.

Buffy's neck remained red with her own blood.

Before embarking to Africa Spike had chained her; she was powerful, more than ever before. Spike feared she would lose her interest in reclaiming her soul but the newly made vampire held her priorities.

"I have to see my daughter," she repeated, "I have to." She was visibly uncomfortable in her own dead body. She held her belly like she did before the birth; her eyes were partially empty, her pale skin bringing out the void in her gaze and the dried blood on her neck.

Spike understood perfectly how a vampire without a soul could love so deeply, because that was exactly how he loved Buffy. Once he had taken the same trip to look for the spark she demanded of him, for her love. Now he takes her to the same place for the same reason. Her daughter needs her as whole as she could be. Spike couldn't stop looking her and dying inside all over again. _What had he done?_

"What happens now?" Gunn asked perplexed at the future of the group.

"Buffy and Angel raise Stella," Fred answered with a smile

"Just like that?" To Gunn the solution didn't fit the complexity of the parents' lives.

"It has to be. We'll help but, it's their daughter." Fred explained discovering Gunn's point was valid.

_We have a daughter Buffy and I_... Full of buried wonder Angel tried collecting what had just happened. "Can you believe this? It is destiny, Stella was meant to happen no matter what anyone said."

"You should thank me you know." Willow smiled widely while rocking Stella back and forth. "I'm glad it worked out this way, but I have to admit I'm afraid of all that we put Buffy through. The pregnancy was perfect, she has a strong body. But now..." Willow stopped herself, "I hope she's back soon. Stella needs her, I feel it."

"I'm not afraid. Buffy's an angel; a soul won't affect her even as a vampire. She's never done anything regrettable. Her mistakes are human and tiny, nothing that didn't bother her before will bother her now."

"Yeah, but she's dead." Willow held back, "She's a vamp- I can't even say it, Angel. This is all too weird. Dawn's going crazy. She understands the situation better now but she can't get past Buffy turning, and I don't blame her."

"I'd imagine so, I'd imagine so." Angel turned around to find Eve opening the door to his office.

"Eve... What the hell are you doing here?" Angel walked over before Eve could get in and grabbed her by her thin arms.

"Not so fast, daddy. Senior Partners demand to know what's going on."

"This is my personal business and it does not concern them."

"Stella may not, but your dead girlfriend does. She's getting herself a soul, Spike has a soul to go along his new concrete bones."

"So what?"

"Prophecies are being challenged here, don't you see? The Shanshu for starters."

"Another time, we'll talk another time." Angel pushed her out.

Willow looked startled.

"Your call, but don't tell us we didn't warn you. That little girl, Angel. Daughter of a vampire and a Slayer..."

"Eve, just go."

"I'll leave you two to make faces at the cute baby, but remember: something is coming, you'll feel it soon enough," Eve said with a grin before leaving the room.

**-THE END-**


End file.
